Secrets, Betrayal, and Love
by SkyMaster
Summary: The Avengers have a new recruit, one with a past as mysterious as her talents. But will a run-in with an old rival revive long buried memories, and a plot more sinister than anyone could imagine? [Steve Rogers/Captain America, OC], [Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Natasha Romanov/Black Widow]
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The only character I own thus far is Emma. I do not own any of the Avengers, nor any of their affiliated realms and/or characters.**

_**This is my first Avengers fanfic...let me know what you think!**_

* * *

"I don't know sir," the woman replied, shaking her head, her crystalline blue eyes meeting his. There was an openness, and innocence there that made her companion want to belief that she was speaking the truth. "All I know is my name…and that's only because of this." She lifted one slight wrist, baring the thin metal band clasped there, branded with the words: _Emma Laurent_. "And even then, who really knows if that's actually my name." She rubbed her wrists where the sharp metal of the handcuffs cut into her skin, before folding her hands on the polished metal of the table again and lifting her gaze back to his. "I don't even know how long I was asleep for."

"Well, that's all well and good Miss Laurent," Nick Fury replied matter-of-factly, "But you see, there's no record that you even exist, so I'm having a hard time seeing how I can trust you. My agents picked you up outside an abandoned HYDRA compound, wandering around without any recollection of who you are. A compound, mind you, that had been in disrepair since after the second World War."

"Sir…I don't even who or what HYDRA is. The last thing I remembered is waking up surrounded by decades of dust and dirt and cobwebs, with about twenty agents pointing their guns at me and ordering me freeze," the woman—Emma—replied coolly. "If I knew something, I would tell you. I've nothing to hide." She bit her lower lip, but still her gaze remained open.

"And how exactly, did you get these," Fury asked skeptically, indicating to her arm and leg. "A gift from Santa Claus?"

Emma allowed a thin smile. "I was hoping you might be able to tell me."

"So what's this all about, Director Fury?" Steve Rogers asked as he, and the rest of the Avengers—Thor Odinson, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, and Natasha Romanov—followed Fury down a winding hallway, the only sound being the echo of their footfalls over the highly polished linoleum.

"Just something I wanted you all to see. We have a new recruit to SHIELD, though seeing has how this Agent's talents far outweigh that of what we need for SHIELD, I've decided our recruit would be better suited to the _Avengers_," Fury replied. "An interesting case really…Agent Laurent was picked up in Europe during a covert mission not long ago...suffers from an acute case of amnesia...worst I've seen, and trust me, I've seen it bad." He led them around a corner, and down yet another long expanse of corridor.

"Then what makes you think he's fit for the Avengers?" Natasha asked incredulously, her dark eyes flickering up to Director Fury.

"Trust me, Agent Romanov, Agent Laurent's more than qualified." Nick Fury stopped outside a large sliding metal door and quickly and expertly typed in an access code on the key pad mounted on the wall. "_Welcome, Nick Fury." _A lilting, automated voice chimed, before the doors slid open to reveal yet another hallway, this one a bit dimmer and cooler than the last.

"We've been holding Agent Laurent here at SHIELD for the past few months for debriefing and a thorough examination. So far everything's checked out," Nick continued as they made their way further down the hallway, approaching yet another large metal door at the end of the long corridor.

"A few months? And we're just now hearing about this?" Bruce Banner asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, Doctor. It was on a need to know basis, and now, you _need_ to know," Fury replied pointedly, shooting Bruce Banner a side-long glance with his one good eye.

"Yeah, keep your pants on there Dr. Jekyll," Tony Stark remarked dryly.

"He doesn't like when you call me that," Bruce warned, an odd clip to his voice.

"Really now boys," Natasha interjected wearily, "It's a bit too early for this, don't you think?" She shot Tony a warning look.

"This Agent Laurent, he is very good at what he does?" Thor asked curiously, absently swinging his massive hammer at his side.

"Agent Laure—"

A massive explosion suddenly rocked the entire hallway, jarring the Director and the Avengers painfully and sending them crashing against the opposite wall as the wall just in front of them blew out, sending bits of plaster and metal ricocheting through the air.

"What the hell was that?" Natasha coughed as the dust settled thickly around them. She picked herself up from where she was sprawled across Steve against the far wall, swinging her legs underneath herself and rising gracefully to her feet.

"That's a damn good question," Fury replied sharply, striding to the massive hole that had been blown through the adjacent wall. The hole yawned into a large control room, filled with complicated looking machinery and systems, where various members of SHIELD were scrambling around wildly, shouting in fear and confusion.

Nick Fury grabbed one of the men scurrying about roughly by the collar, bringing his own face just inches from the man's. "What exactly is going on here?" he snapped. "I see a bunch of chicken littles, but no sky falling."

"It was her, Director. She went crazy…attacked Agent Barnes," the man sputtered.

"Someone attacked Bucky?" Steve asked quickly, stumbling through the hole, followed by the other Avengers. "Who?"

Fury released the man roughly, and marched across the room. "Open the hatch," he ordered, ignoring Steve's question for the moment.

"Sir, I don't think that's advisable," a young man, barely in his twenties, sputtered nervously. "We haven't contained—"

"I said, open the hatch," Nick Fury ordered sharply, shooting the young boy an icy glare. "Don't make me say it again."

A large door swung open to reveal a massive, rectangular room, the walls padded thickly, furnished with just a small table and chair in the far corner. Across the room, a young woman was pinned against the wall, her feet dangling inches from the floor. Bucky Barnes stood before her, his bionic arm holding her in place, his hand around her slender neck, squeezing tightly.

"Shit," Natasha hissed, starting forward to help the woman. But before she had much of a chance, the woman brought one knee up, striking Bucky in the groin, causing him to gasp sharply and release her. She dropped nimbly to the ground and swung one leg forward, swiping Bucky's feet out from under him and sending him sprawling on his back. In a flash she had one boot pressed to his throat, her gaze steely as it fixed on him.

"Agent," Fury shouted. "Stand down."

The woman's gaze flitted to Nick Fury, and then back down to Bucky, but she didn't move.

"I said. Stand. Down." Fury's voice was like stone.

After a brief moments' hesitation, the woman released Bucky and stood up, backing a few steps away, but never taking her gaze from him.

"Ladies," Nick Fury drawled. "Meet Agent Laurent."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: As like before, I do not own anything Marvel or Avengers related. Though I do own Emma. Thanks for reading, and please review!**_

* * *

"Agent Laurent is a woman," Thor said bluntly, looking at the woman standing over Bucky with a mixture of skepticism and open curiosity. "You did not say this."

"Did I leave that out?" Nick Fury asked. "I didn't think it mattered."

"Well, _she_ can certainly kick all of ours asses-maybe not the Boy Scout's over here," Tony said, nodding to Steve, who gave him an exasperated look, "But I wouldn't want to cross her, as Agent Barnes seems to have."

"Agent Laurent, what exactly seems to be the problem?" Fury asked, taking a few steps toward her, his gaze trained unblinkingly on her. "Would you mind enlightening me as to _why_ you attacked a fellow agent?"

"He's a traitor," Emma said in a calm, measured voice, though without really knowing why. There was an underlying note of rage behind her words, one that she hadn't even realized she'd felt until now. Why _did_ she attack him? She herself could not explain it…the only thing she knew was that she'd seen him and suddenly felt like he was _dangerous_, like he was a _traitor_. Something in her had snapped and suddenly she was flying across the room and putting him in a choke-hold and then everyone was freaking out.

"Is he now? Well is there something I don't know about Agent Barnes? Maybe something you'd like to clue me in on?" Director Fury asked calmly as he looked woman over, though there was a slight edge to his voice.

Emma blinked, a sharp pain suddenly making her head hurt. It felt as if someone were taking an ice pick to her skull, and it was almost as if something was there, at the edge of her conscious, something she couldn't quite grasp. Like trying to remember a strange dream once you've woken up. She massaged her temples, suddenly feeling weary and confused, her head pounding. What the hell was going on? Was she going crazy? Losing her freaking _mind_? Or was it normal for people to have strange out-of-body-experiences and randomly attack strangers?

Emma shook her head sightly and raised her gaze to see eight sets of eyes trained on her. She bit her lip and took a shaky step back, suddenly unable to handle the looks that everyone was giving her…the Agent she'd attacked was watching her like she were a dangerous, feral thing, while the others that had come in with Director Fury regarded her with mixtures of alarm, suspicion, and curiosity.

"No…I-I don't know," she mumbled. "Excuse me…" She stumbled past them, nearly crashing into a particularly good looking, well-muscled guy who gave her a disbelieving look, and slipped through the still open door and into the control room. Without a backward glance she wove through the crowd of people that quickly parted for her and pulled herself through the gaping whole she'd created just moments before.

There was a beat of dead, awkward silence after the woman had disappeared as the Avengers exchanged glances. Nick Fury's expression was unreadable.

It was Tony who finally broke the silence. "Well, that went well."

* * *

"Get a hold of yourself, Emma," Emma muttered, pacing restlessly back and forth in the tidy, yet cramped, bathroom of the coffee shop she'd stumbled into an hour earlier. The aroma of coffee wafted under the thin crack between the door and the titled floor, making her realize how hungry she was. She ignored the pangs of hungry, and instead focused on the panic bubbling up inside of her.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to gain some sort of bearing, though it seemed an impossible task at the present moment. She was Emma Laurent, and she…well that was about it. That was pretty all she knew of herself. And who knew if that was even true.

Eventually, she turned to stare at herself in the mirror, at the stranger looking intently back at her. The woman in the mirror had piercing blue eyes, like a clear, deep autumn sky. Her raven colored hair, long and wavy, was pulled back into a tight pony tail, emphasizing high cheekbones and pale, ivory skin. The woman staring back at her was attractive, beautiful even. But Emma didn't know her.

Despite the few months she had spent at SHIELD's headquarters, despite the debriefings and training and therapy she had undergone to help regain some of her memory, she was no closer to figuring out who she was than when she had first woken up back in the underground chamber where they had first found her. Everything was new, everything was foreign.

But…somehow she knew the man with the bionic arm…the one she'd attacked back at headquarters. She wasn't sure how, but she knew him. And he was a traitor…at least that's what every fiber in her being had told her the moment she'd laid eyes on him. But that didn't make any sense. None of this made any sense. How could she know someone she'd never met before?

* * *

"Emma Laurent," Nick Fury said, as Emma's profile flickered across the projection screen, throwing shadows across the darkened room. "We found her in an abandoned army base outside of a small town, in Germany. Prior to the end of WWII it was being used by HYDRA, though we're not sure what for. It was operated by a cell we never knew existed, until just a short time ago."

"Was she hiding out there?" Natasha asked, her sharp eyes quickly scanning the screen before they flickered to Fury.

"We're not sure," Fury continued, sounding aggravated. "She has no memory of whom or what she is. We're not even sure how long she'd been there before we arrived and she sure as hell can't tell us. Claims she woke up here after our agents broke into the base."

"What condition was she in when she was found?" Bruce Banner asked, rubbing his chin with one hand and drumming his fingers on the table top lightly with the other.

"Perfect condition…physically at least. That's the problem…aside from her memory loss she's completely healthy. But she can't tell us how long she'd been there, how she got there, or even what she was doing there." There was a faint whirring as the holographic images on the screen changed, revealing a picture of a heavily wooded area, overgrown with trees and foliage. The faint outline of a building frame pushed through a thick armor of vines and leaves, easily overlooked to the untrained eye. "Like I said, the base has been decommissioned for some time now, and it doesn't appear to have been disturbed anytime recently."

"So do you think she's been there since it was destroyed?" Steve asked, his brow furrowing. "That's 70 years at least. She would have to be suspended in some sort cryogenic stasis to actually survive that long and resist aging."

"Would it really be that surprising?" Natasha asked dryly. "I mean look at you and Agent Barnes."

"There you go, Grandpa," Tony said with a faint smirk, looking over at Steve Rogers, "It's like a match made in heaven."

"But how do you know we can trust her?" Bruce asked, sitting up a bit straighter in his seat and looking at Nick Fury.

"Agent Laurent has been cleared and debriefed, though for the time being, we'll continue to monitor her behavior," Fury replied. "But for now, we're going to treat her as any other member of this team."

"The Director's right," Tony said, lounging back in his seat. "Besides, it's not like she's the first one of this team to pull a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde."

* * *

Emma bent over the sink and quickly splashed some cold water over her face, hoping to help clear the fog, and the headache, from her mind. It was no use—her head still throbbed dully, and her thoughts remained muddled and unclear. She straightened up and turned off the faucet, giving her reflection one last scrutinizing look before she turned away from the mirror. She blew out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding—well, she'd better go back to SHIELD's headquarters, before they sent someone after her to bring her back themselves.

Luckily, she wasn't far from headquarters, so it wouldn't be hard to find her way back. The coffee shop was just around the corner, and despite her lack of memory, she was finding that she possessed a pretty good sense of direction, along with an uncanny sixth sense with it came to people and situations. Well, at least that was something. She bit back a slightly hysterical giggle-she might not remember her name but at least she could navigate her way through a strange city.

With a heavy sigh she reached across the tiny bathroom and unlocked the door, hesitating only a moment, before slipping out into the noisy shop once more. The delicious armor of coffee and fresh-baked pastries danced around her as she wove through people and tables and chairs, and she realized how hungry she was. Well, there would be time for food later. Besides, she didn't have any money on her…she'd left everything back at headquarters.

Once she was out on the chaotic streets of New York, she stood there on the dirty sidewalk for a moment, looking around dazedly and blinking in the bright afternoon sunlight. The city was huge, and she wondered if she would ever get used to it—she didn't think she particularly liked being anywhere this big, and this crowded, and frankly it was making her feel a bit anxious.

As she walked through the massive throngs of people choking the streets and the sidewalks of the city, she tried to remember if she'd ever been to New York…She didn't think she had, at least she couldn't specifically remember ever being here. Though there was something slightly familiar about it…something she almost recognized…like a long forgotten lullaby. She groaned in frustration. That's all she ever seemed to have—faint inklings of memories she could never quite grasp.

* * *

Eventually she found her way back to headquarters, and as soon as she walked into the massive main lobby, two agents were escorting her through the hallway and to a large glass elevator that took her up to the top floor. Once the doors opened she was led to yet another set of towering doors, that led into what she assumed was an office of some sort. Gathering her nerve, she pushed the heavy doors open and wasn't surprised to see the Director there, seated at the head of a long, black table.

"How nice of you to join us again, Agent Laurent," Nick Fury greeted her as she stepped into the room. Around the long table sat a group of people, all whom regarded her with mixed emotions—curiosity, wariness, suspicion. She recognized them from earlier. When she tried to kill their friend. Well…this was going to be interesting.


End file.
